Crime Q&A: Has sentencing occurred following retrial for 1998 murder?

Q: Has David Williams been sentenced following his retrial for a 1998 murder?

Bradford, Sacramento

A: David Earl Williams was convicted by a Sacramento County jury in April following a retrial for the 1998 murder of 21-year-old Mallory Treadwell.

According to Sacramento Superior Court records available online, Williams was sentenced May 16 to 25 years to life in prison.

Williams was originally convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder in the death of Treadwell, who he mistakenly thought had burglarized his Oak Park home. His conviction was upheld by a state appellate court, but in 2012, a federal district court ordered that he be retried.

According to stories in The Sacramento Bee, Williams returned to his home in the 3900 block of 17th Avenue about 2 a.m. July 27, 1998, and found that it had been burglarized. That same morning, Treadwell disappeared less than a mile from Williams’ home. Later that day, Treadwell’s body was found in an irrigation canal in Rio Linda. Authorities said he had been tied up with a rope and a leather belt was tightly wound around his neck. The cause of death was ligature strangulation.

Williams was unaware that he was under investigation that summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal authorities for allegedly dealing large quantities of cocaine and marijuana. On July 29, 1998, an informant working with federal agents told homicide detectives that Williams told him his home had been burglarized and that he found one of the burglars in his yard, tied him to a tree, pistol whipped him, broke his neck and disposed of his body in Rio Linda.

Williams arrest followed an eight-month investigation, during which evidence showed that Treadwell was not involved in the burglary.